krispymenudo wrote:I have just over 2 weeks (~16 days) between my last final in the Spring and graduation. Would anyone recommend for or against taking a 12 day trip in this time? Has anyone done it?

I don't recommend that. During that period, you can start bar prep. I recommend studying during those 16 days, taking graduation day off and getting wasted, and then continuing to study. After you take the bar, you can vacation to wherever you want.

krispymenudo wrote:I have just over 2 weeks (~16 days) between my last final in the Spring and graduation. Would anyone recommend for or against taking a 12 day trip in this time? Has anyone done it?

I don't recommend that. During that period, you can start bar prep. I recommend studying during those 16 days, taking graduation day off and getting wasted, and then continuing to study. After you take the bar, you can vacation to wherever you want.

The bar exam is a war. You have to be in attack mode.

Nah thats a great time to take a trip there is absolutely no reason to study for the bar before graduation.

krispymenudo wrote:I have just over 2 weeks (~16 days) between my last final in the Spring and graduation. Would anyone recommend for or against taking a 12 day trip in this time? Has anyone done it?

I was in a similar situation just this year and took a 10 day vacation. I highly recommend it. I knew I would not be able to take a vacation after the bar exam, so that played into my situation quite a bit. But, it allowed me to decompress after finals and rest/relax to come back with a good mindset for bar prep.

krispymenudo wrote:I have just over 2 weeks (~16 days) between my last final in the Spring and graduation. Would anyone recommend for or against taking a 12 day trip in this time? Has anyone done it?

I don't recommend that. During that period, you can start bar prep. I recommend studying during those 16 days, taking graduation day off and getting wasted, and then continuing to study. After you take the bar, you can vacation to wherever you want.

The bar exam is a war. You have to be in attack mode.

Nah thats a great time to take a trip there is absolutely no reason to study for the bar before graduation.

Totally agree. There are plenty of schools where graduation falls right before bar study starting, and those people survive just fine. Go on vacation.

This is just my opinion, but if you go on vacation before the bar then it'll be a waste of time and money. Instead of enjoying yourself, you'll be worrying about the exam. However, if you go on vacation after the exam then it's like taking a good shit (sorry for being so graphic). By doing the latter, you're rewarding yourself for busting your ass for two months.

I'll give you an example: During the 2007 NFL playoffs, the Dallas Cowboys had a bye week during the wild card round. Instead of using that time to scout his potential opponents or work out, Tony Romo went on vacation with his ditzy girlfriend (at the time) Jessica Simpson. When Dallas played the Giants the next week, Romo had one of his worse performances ever and the heavily-favored Cowboys lost to the Giants.

This is just my opinion. Different people have different mindsets. Last year, I took the bar in New Jersey. After the second day, I had a migraine. I slept for 10 hours and then I went on vacation the next day. I wasn't truly relaxed until I received an email in November saying that I passed.

If you have to choose between the two, I would take a trip after the bar exam (I didn't and I really regret it, and I think the relaxation is more necessary after the bar than after graduation). But if you have the chance also to take a vacation right after graduation, go for it.

I knew that I wouldn't get a vacation post-Bar because my start date with my firm was August 1.

I also gave up an almost full ride scholarship for an LLM in Budapest. So, I went to Athens, Greece for 4 days. I studied every day except for one afternoon to go sightseeing. Then I spent the summer in Budapest, Hungary studying for the Bar Exam!

Although it wasn't a true vacation, I felt really great about spending the little bit of free time I had, in Budapest, instead of in Los Angeles. Studying at the library in Budapest was so much better than studying in the law library at my school in LA.

The way I figured it was if I had just 15 minutes at the end of the day to walk around the block, at least I walked around the block in Budapest! However, there were a few evenings when I had 2 or 3 hours of free time. Those times were amazing!

I returned from studying abroad and was relaxed, as if I had just been on vacation! I was more than adequately prepared for the Bar Exam mentally. But, even more importantly, I felt prepared as a whole person and not some crazed person who had spent the entire summer locked up in the law library!

Everyone handles things differently... But, I will always vote for adding some travel into the mix.

krispymenudo wrote:I have just over 2 weeks (~16 days) between my last final in the Spring and graduation. Would anyone recommend for or against taking a 12 day trip in this time? Has anyone done it?

I think this is fine, and a nice way to relax before you have to hand over 2 months of your life to the beast of Barbri.

My feeling is that for most people, the day after graduation is when it really sets in that you'll have to study for the bar exam. I don't think any studying you do in 16 days between spring final and graduation is going to be very effective, and you're probably not going to hit it very hard. You also don't want to risk getting burnout in the middle of studying for the bar because you started 16 days too early.

So, go on your trip, you'll be back with 4 days to spare before graduation, and you can put in a few days of study time if you want (I wouldn't)

L_William_W wrote:This is just my opinion, but if you go on vacation before the bar then it'll be a waste of time and money. Instead of enjoying yourself, you'll be worrying about the exam. However, if you go on vacation after the exam then it's like taking a good shit (sorry for being so graphic). By doing the latter, you're rewarding yourself for busting your ass for two months.

I'll give you an example: During the 2007 NFL playoffs, the Dallas Cowboys had a bye week during the wild card round. Instead of using that time to scout his potential opponents or work out, Tony Romo went on vacation with his ditzy girlfriend (at the time) Jessica Simpson. When Dallas played the Giants the next week, Romo had one of his worse performances ever and the heavily-favored Cowboys lost to the Giants.

This is just my opinion. Different people have different mindsets. Last year, I took the bar in New Jersey. After the second day, I had a migraine. I slept for 10 hours and then I went on vacation the next day. I wasn't truly relaxed until I received an email in November saying that I passed.

See, I feel your analogy would be a better fit if OP was talking about going on a vacation the week before the actual bar exam. But in this case, he is going on a trip 20 days before he even starts to prepare for the exam. So, his trip would be like what, 100 days before the actual exam?

And lets not sleep on Jessica Simpson, homegirl has a fashion empire in the billions!